PWDU - FSP Update, May 24, 2018

MDH logo

Partnership and Workforce Development - Food Safety Partnership Update

View this as a webpage

May 24, 2018

Tip of the Quarter: Employee Illness

Food Safety Partnership of Minnesota

Part 3: Recording Employee Illness and Customer Complaints

Third in a four-part series aimed at reducing foodborne illness outbreaks in Minnesota food establishments by increasing compliance with Minnesota food code. If you missed them you can still read Part 1: Employee and PIC Responsibility and Part 2: Exclusions and Restrictions.

 

Record-keeping is an important part of any business or regulatory action. Records should be accurate, complete and timely. When your business or agency follows the proper record-keeping procedure for foodborne illness, we can work together to stop outbreaks or even to keep them from happening.

Minnesota's food code has two parts related to recording employee illness and customer complaints.

Demonstration of knowledge

Minnesota Rules, part 4626.0030 outlines 15 areas of knowledge the PIC is required to demonstrate to the inspector. Two of these (subparts C and O) pertain directly to monitoring and managing employee illness:

  • Identifying foodborne illness symptoms, modes of transmission, incubation periods and commonly associated foods.
  • Explaining responsibilities, rights, and authorities of the employee, PIC, and health authority.

During inspection, an inspector should ask questions and have open discussion with the PIC to assess their general knowledge of food safety and foodborne illness prevention. Here are a few questions that might help address subparts C and O.

"Do you track employee illness? If so, what information do you record?”

Sometimes people are shy about saying it, but “vomiting and diarrhea” is the answer to look for! The PIC might also want to share information about who enters information into the log and when is the last time the log was used.

“Can you tell me how people might get sick with vomiting and diarrhea?”

This can be a good follow-up question to help assess the PIC’s understanding of modes of transmission, incubation periods and commonly associated foods. PICs often miss the key element of the fecal-oral route of foodborne illness transmission. It is important for the PIC to understand and be able to explain how pathogens such as hepatitis A, E. coli, Salmonella and Shigella are transmitted through fecal contamination of food.

“Have you ever received a complaint from a customer saying they became ill after eating here?”

Finally, the inspector can use this question to start the conversation about the PIC’s understanding of responsibilities, rights and authorities of those involved. Follow-up discussion can touch on needed reminders. We will cover this topic in more detail in Part 4: Reporting to the Health Authority.

Back to top


Record employee illness

Minnesota Rules, part 4626.0060, subpart B requires the PIC to record employee illness. The PIC records all employee reports of diarrhea, vomiting, or jaundice on an employee illness log. The Minnesota food code doesn't specify exactly how the reports must be recorded. MDH has an Employee Illness Log which is one option for record-keeping. The log helps to ensure your records are complete.

Some handy features of this form include:

  • Employee name, report date and return-to-work date.
  • List of key symptoms to check off if present, plus space for additional symptoms or comments.
  • List of diagnosed illnesses to report to the health authority, plus the foodborne illness hotline number (877-FOOD-ILL).

The log also provides a summary of exclusion and restriction requirements. You can review these requirements in Part 2: Exclusions and Restrictions.

When reviewing an establishment’s employee illness policy to determine compliance, inspectors should go well beyond a simple question such as, “Do you have an illness recording log?” It is important to make sure the log is up-to-date and in an easily accessible location.

Is the log up-to-date?

Sometimes the PIC will show the inspector a blank employee illness log. How likely is it that no employees have reported any illness during the past year (since the previous routine inspection)? The inspector and PIC should follow up with a discussion about responsibilities, as covered in Part 1: Employee and PIC Responsibility.

Is the log kept in a convenient location?

While it isn’t a good idea to post an employee illness log out in the open for other employees to see, it is important to make sure the record is in a location in a where it can be accessed by all PICs. This helps ensure complete and timely records are kept during all operating hours.

Occasionally, inspectors hear from the PIC that the log is kept off-site. This is not a recommended practice, because it is a barrier to timely record-keeping. Storing this information off-site also makes it difficult for the PIC to provide the record when requested by the health authority, as required in Minnesota Rules, part 4626.0060, subpart B.

Back to top


Best practices

Customer complaints

Minnesota Rules, part 4626.0060, subpart C requires the PIC to report customer complaints of illness to the regulatory authority. Part 4: Reporting to the Health Authority will cover this in more detail.

It isn’t a requirement to keep a log of customer complaints, but it is a good idea to take information down in an organized manner. Recording the complainant’s name, phone number and other pertinent details such as their meal date makes reporting to the health authority easier. In the event of an outbreak, having this information provides inspectors and epidemiologists a head start on the investigation.

Vomiting and diarrhea incidents

Foodborne illness often takes victims by surprise, and unfortunately vomiting and diarrhea incidents do occur in food establishments. It isn’t a requirement to keep a log of these incidents, but you may want to. Notes about the type of incident, date and time, area in the establishment, as well as which employees helped with clean-up can be useful if an outbreak does occur.

FDA Food Code includes a requirement for an establishment to have a clean-up plan for vomiting and diarrhea incidents. Proposed language for Minnesota food code rule revision also includes this requirement. Here are some examples:

Back to top

Food Safety Partnership Steering Committee

June planning meeting

The FSP Steering Committee will meet on June 20 to plan for the upcoming FSP video-conference meeting scheduled for Wednesday, September 19, 2018. The topic for the meeting will be Minnesota Food Code Rule Revision. Presenters will include trainers from MDH and MDA retail food regulatory programs.

Members can help

The Steering Committee wants your input to help set the agenda for our September session. Let us know what aspects of Minnesota Food Code Rule Revision you’d like to hear more about.

If you have questions you’d like us to answer, or topics from the revised code that you think we should be sure to address during the FSP session, email Sarah Leach. Responses received by May 31 will be considered at the June Steering Committee meeting.

Find out more

Back to top